If your insecurities are weighing you down, think of them the same way you would think of an imperfect friend.
We all feel insecure about something, be it a physical quality we don’t like about ourselves or a personality quirk that we think makes us weird. Instead of shaming yourself for your imperfections, Leo Babauta at Zen Habits suggests you relate to these qualities as if they were a buddy that’s stuck by your side through thick and thin:
Pause and take a self-assessment. Notice the parts of yourself, both your body and your inner self, that you don’t like... See them for the imperfect parts of you that they are, deserving of love as a friend who is imperfect also deserves love. Think about how you’d treat this imperfect friend, and be the same way toward yourself. Give yourself assurance, give yourself compassion.
Your friends aren’t perfect, nobody is, but you still give them a fair shake because you know you wouldn’t be the same without them. The same goes for the things you feel insecure about. They’re what make you you. You don’t always have to like those qualities, but they don’t have to be a constant source of negativity either.
A Roadmap to Overcoming Insecurities | Zen Habits
Photo by Ava Randa.